Dr. Nidhi Pundhir, Vice president, HCL Foundation
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The HCL Foundation has pledged more support for sports in Uttar Pradesh by signing an MoU with the State government during the recent Global Investors Summit.
Giving an insight into what HCL has done in the past decade across the country, a big chunk of which has been in Uttar Pradesh, the vice president of HCL’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) wing, Dr. Nidhi Pundhir stated that 5000 more children, including girls and persons with disability would be supported as part of the initiative.
“We will identify and nurture talent in multiple sports”, said Dr. Nidhi as she talked to The Hindu on Tuesday, explaining in detail, the depth of coverage across the State, both in the rural and urban environment.
Making it clear that the focus was not just about winning medals at the national and international level, Dr. Nidhi pointed out that the efforts were mainly towards empowering the children to a better life through sports.
“All those meritorious athletes, hailing from below poverty line, are given long-term support in a variety of ways, in terms of nutrition, tuition fee, mobility expenses, fee for academies, on a case by case basis”, she said.
Through its CSR initiative, HCL has already supported 27,000 athletes across the country in different sports, and 14,000 have been from Uttar Pradesh. Many of the athletes have gone on to excel at the State, national and international level.
The 18-year-old Jerlin Anika who won three gold medals in the Deaflympics and presented the Arjuna award last year is a classic example of HCL’s drive towards excellence in sports.
“For the disabled athletes we also cover the supporting people in their team”, she said.
Stating that for supporting 5,000 children, effort has to be made to reach five or ten times the number to filter the right candidates, Dr. Nidhi said that it was a massive exercise executed with enthusiasm and energy, as the goal was to make a difference to the life of people in the lower strata.
Emphasising that sports played a significant role in improving the quality of life of the children, mostly leading to job opportunities etc., Dr. Nidhi stressed that it helped girls in particular to sail above the social and economic barriers.
“We conduct the Sports for Change meet, with about 600 athletes from across the country, to help them compete in State of art facilities, and learn about winning, losing and bouncing back”, she said.
The 47-year-old company, HCL has spent about 1000 crore rupees for the initiative in the last 10 years in the country, and about 50% of it has been invested in Uttar Pradesh. That support is set to increase significantly in the next five years.